Running Law Enforcement/Investigation Adventures

[rancke]

Imagine trying to prove your case on a world that doesn't believe in using DNA evidence? Or even fingerprinting?

DNA I can see, but it would take strong determination fuelled by some strong motivation to refuse to believe in fingerprints. That fingermarks were unique was known far back in history and it's easy to demonstrate its validity to a court in quite dramatic fashion. The revolutionary aspect of the "invention" of fingerprinting was the categorization that made it possible to search archives for matches.


Hans

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

DNA I can see, but it would take strong determination fuelled by some strong motivation to refuse to believe in fingerprints. That fingermarks were uniques was known far back in history and it's easy to demonstrate its validity to a court in quite dramatic fashion. The revolutionary aspect of the "invention" of fingerprinting was the categorization that made it possible to search archives for matches.


Hans

true, but that doesn't take into account the possibility that future tech could allow someone to fake a set of fingerprints. Or even DNA, for that matter. thier might be ways for a high tech socity to spot a faked DNA or fingerprint set, but on a backwater pre-stellar world where the ability to do DNA tests is on the upper limits of local science?

you can make a case for it being excluded or discounted in certian cases (i.e. those where someone has suffcient motive and ability to aquire the tools to fake it). not for every case, obviously, but for some high profile cases or the ones where it seems so 'perfect' as to suggest a set up.

 

[rancke]

true, but that doesn't take into account the possibility that future tech could allow someone to fake a set of fingerprints.

Right you are. I had forgotten that aspect.


Hans

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

Right you are. I had forgotten that aspect.


Hans

Like i said, it;s not a given, just a theoretical possibility, and one that could have useful RP implications (after all, to fake someones fingerprints, you're going to have to get his fingerprints, which could be an adventure in itself).

I'd imagine that such techology would not be cheap, so it's use (or even its suspected use) would be a warning bell to anyone who noticed that someone really wants the suspect found guilty.

and, if thier are ways to spot faked evidence available at higher tech levels, then the PCs with thier High tech ship on a backwater might suddenly become key players in a high profile case with a lot people keen to affect the decision..........

 

[rancke]

There's an SF police procedural by Lee Killough called The Dopplegänger Gambit where someone has just invented a way to enable other people to use his fingerprint. This is a problem because fingerprints are used to authenticate all financial transactions and so establish incontestable alibis. The viewpoint character is a detective who has just been assigned a new partner with a reputation for being a wild card. He is convinced that the man he suspects is somehow manipulating fingerprint records, but no one else believes him.

Quite a good story. Sadly, I can't find my copy. Killough wrote two more books about the two detectives. I have the second, Spider Play, and that's quite good too. The third, Dragon's Teeth, had somehow escaped my notice until I checked Killough out on Wikipedia just now.


Hans

 

[SpaceBadger]

I checked out the recommendation for the "Almost Human" TV show, watched a couple of episodes on Hulu. Seems like a pretty decent police procedural, with the SF elements not just tacked on but actually integral to the story. Using pretty cutting-edge ideas of today, too - specs like Google Glass, datapads that interface seamlessly with displays to share info, gestural interfaces, chem-printers that can synthesize from computer designs. Some interesting trans-human ideas, too, with robots, androids of various kinds, "chromes" that are genetic manipulations from their parents chromosomes... some interesting stuff.

So naturally it just got cancelled after its first season. :nonono: There are 5 eps on Hulu; guess I'll have to wait until it gets to netflix to see the rest.


EDIT: smart-houses, advanced social networking...

 

[JimMarn]

Speed camers were used in one episode of Columbo, a tv detective.

The accused's face was seen driving the family car, and getting a ticket for running through a red light. This was miles away, so it couldn't have been him. Well, I meant the driver's face was his face.

Then Columbo spotted that the traffic cam photo showed the driver's face with no shadows. Then they checked height of driver, and the camera angle showed the torso and head was different for him than the driver.

Turns out it was his wife who deliberately drove it through the red light, to give her husband, the killer, an alibi.

But what if a Traveller ship lands on a planet where the traffic cameras have been sold to a lower tech level world's police, and the cameras aren't good enough to show if the face photographed has shadows or not ? Ort they don't think to look for shadows on the face mask ?

 

[Garyius2003]

I checked out the recommendation for the "Almost Human" TV show, watched a couple of episodes on Hulu. Seems like a pretty decent police procedural, with the SF elements not just tacked on but actually integral to the story. Using pretty cutting-edge ideas of today, too - specs like Google Glass, datapads that interface seamlessly with displays to share info, gestural interfaces, chem-printers that can synthesize from computer designs. Some interesting trans-human ideas, too, with robots, androids of various kinds, "chromes" that are genetic manipulations from their parents chromosomes... some interesting stuff.

So naturally it just got cancelled after its first season. :nonono: There are 5 eps on Hulu; guess I'll have to wait until it gets to netflix to see the rest.


EDIT: smart-houses, advanced social networking...

We watched it as well. It deserved to get canceled. The premise was great, the actor playing the robot was great, the monster of the weeks were good.

However, it must have cost a lot, the actor playing the jock human cop was only okay in the role, the love interest cop couldn't act her way out of a paper bag, and 5 minutes per episode the writers seemed to give high schoolers a chance to write scenes.

 

[aramis]

I checked out the recommendation for the "Almost Human" TV show, watched a couple of episodes on Hulu. Seems like a pretty decent police procedural, with the SF elements not just tacked on but actually integral to the story. Using pretty cutting-edge ideas of today, too - specs like Google Glass, datapads that interface seamlessly with displays to share info, gestural interfaces, chem-printers that can synthesize from computer designs. Some interesting trans-human ideas, too, with robots, androids of various kinds, "chromes" that are genetic manipulations from their parents chromosomes... some interesting stuff.

So naturally it just got cancelled after its first season. :nonono: There are 5 eps on Hulu; guess I'll have to wait until it gets to netflix to see the rest.


EDIT: smart-houses, advanced social networking...

I'm not happy it was cancelled. It's one of the smartest near future SF shows in years.

It's well worth watching the rest.

 

[SpaceBadger]

We watched it as well. It deserved to get canceled. The premise was great, the actor playing the robot was great, the monster of the weeks were good.

However, it must have cost a lot, the actor playing the jock human cop was only okay in the role, the love interest cop couldn't act her way out of a paper bag, and 5 minutes per episode the writers seemed to give high schoolers a chance to write scenes.

See, I had pretty much the same impression of the acting quality of the human cop (haven't seen the love interest yet), but was willing to overlook that in favor of decently-plotted procedural mysteries, cool special effects, and SF that was integral to the story.

But I guess from a network POV, a show that expensive had better be fracking AWESOME, not just good.

 

[SpaceBadger]

I'm not happy it was cancelled. It's one of the smartest near future SF shows in years.

Agreed

It's well worth watching the rest.

The way Hulu works, I should get to watch the rest of the season, as they follow the series one week at a time. However, the first 8 (I think it was) which have already shown on Hulu, won't be back again so I'll have to wait for the whole season to show up on Netflix (I don't really go for those DVD sets, too expensive).

 

[Hemdian]

I'm looking at this from the law enforcement point of view, but a lot of these considerations apply to running a game for a group of criminals.

I've been toying with a similar idea ... sort of Traveller/NCIS campaign.

Do the investigators have a magic gadget that can scan a room and reliably identify anyone who has been in there within certain parameters?

One thing I always remind my players of: "this ain't Star Trek." That said, check out some of the DGP stuff for MT ... like the various handheld scanners in WBH or some of the medical articles in The Digest.

Surveillance cams?

In addition to already mentioned Almost Human you should also check out Person Of Interest.

But a lot of stuff can be curtailed by other factors, political and/or jurisdictional. A bit dated but also check out Outland and Star Cops.

 

[Vladika]

A bit dated but also check out Outland and Star Cops.

Outland easily could have been a Traveller adventure.